Chapter 1 The Burning Pyre

　　The smoke rolled thickly, and each inhalation made a ragged bellows-like raspy sound, as if it was searing the throat and lungs, and Xia Feng's consciousness quickly blurred. 　　"Can't, can't fall asleep, will die." 　　"Be awake, must be awake!" 　　...... 　　The boundless crimson color dimmed in a hallow manner, and the deepest, most submerged pitch blackness surfaced, and as if he was drowning, Xia Feng struggled and tried to grab every single thing he could to help himself change this powerless drifting state, and get rid of this unspeakable darkness. 　　Suddenly, a little reddish glow lit up in front of them, like the sun rising in the early morning. 　　Under its illumination, Xia Feng felt that he regained a little bit of strength, and then leaned towards the red light as if he was desperately trying to do so. 　　When Xia Feng took this step truly with the help of the illumination, the light grew brighter and brighter, turning from crimson to pure white, piercing the darkness to pieces and fading away in an instant. 　　"Whew." Xia Feng sat up violently, panting heavily, he had actually dreamt of a terrible fire, and before the fire came, his sleeping self fell into a coma due to inhaling too much smoke, and could only wait vaguely and despairingly for the fire to spread over, the same as several times before when the ghosts were pressing down on their beds, knowing that they were dreaming, but when they wanted to break free, they didn't have the strength to do so, and they couldn't control it. 　　This dream was unusually real, making Xia Feng's heart palpitate, coupled with the fact that he didn't feel the presence of the fire, so he sat stagnantly for a long time without coming back to his senses. 　　As his rapidly beating heart slowly smoothed out, Xia Feng's spirit coalesced, remembering that he was catching up on his graduation thesis in the school's comprehensive library's overnight reading room, he laughed to himself in his heart and said, "The last few days have all been this kind of irregular life of staying up late, no wonder I had such a real nightmare." 　　But when Xia Feng looked in front of him, ready to pack up his reference books and go back to his dorm room, a strange and overpowering scene hit his mind like a giant hammer, causing him to freeze violently and go blank. 　　In front of him there was no longer the beautiful wooden desk of the library, no more reference books piled up in a mess, no more drafts of papers ready to be entered into the computer, only a black, tattered and hairy blanket with tattered edges, and this blanket was covering himself. 　　Instead of the reclining chairs of a library, one was sitting on a narrow wooden bed. 　　"Where is this?!" 　　Although Xia Feng's personality was somewhat introverted and shy, and his reaction was not fast enough, but at this moment, any more, he discovered all sorts of things that were wrong: even if there was really a fire, and he had been sent to a hospital, this place did not look like a hospital! 　　He inwardly tightened, panicked to look around, and reflexively busy to the side to stand up. 　　Just as he stepped on the ground, Xia Feng felt a burst of extreme weakness and dizziness, and his feet went limp, about to fall down diagonally. 　　Xia Feng panicked and stretched out his hand, propping himself up on the bed, stabilizing himself, his face was pale and distracted, and just now, in this shocking glimpse, he had already completely surveyed his surroundings. 　　A dilapidated, narrow hut, in addition to this wooden bed beside the house, only a wooden table that may fall apart at any time, two stools are still intact, a broken crate, and the other side of the rickety wooden door, there is a fireplace and hanging in the original color of the fireplace on the stove, the fireplace under the firewood has not known how long it has been extinguished, there is no half a point of the heat to come out. 　　Everything was so unfamiliar that Xia Feng was unable to tell where he was, and the feeling of weakness that kept coming back made Xia Feng's mind a mess: 　　"Where the hell is this?!" 　　"The body feels like it has just gotten very sick, much like the feeling of that time in high school when the pneumonia had just subsided." 　　...... 　　Countless thoughts echoed in his mind, but Xia Feng had never encountered this kind of strange to the extreme, a little introverted character makes him momentarily surprisingly do not know what to do next, a thick panic festered rapidly. 　　The only thing to be thankful for was that there was no nasty things appearing, allowing Xia Feng to be able to habitually take a few deep breaths, slowly calming the panic, when shouts came from far outside the hut: 　　"Witch burning! The church of Adejean is burning witches!" 　　"Everybody go!" 　　"Burn the damned, wicked witch!" 　　Two diametrically opposed emotions, fear and excitement, were evident in the strange accents, and Natsukaze, interrupted from his panic and curious, muttered to himself, "Witches? What kind of world is this?" 　　As an adult who preferred novels, that bad feeling arose vaguely in Summer Wind's heart, but before he had time to think deeply about it, there was a clang and the poor broken wooden door was slammed open in one fell swoop, and a twelve or thirteen year old boy rushed in. 　　"Big brother Lucien ......," the boy with short brown hair and wearing a knee-length linen top was surprised and pleasantly surprised to see Xia Feng standing beside the bed, "You're awake?" 　　Xia Feng looked at the clothes that were different from the modern style and numbly nodded his head, his mind was messed up to produce an absurd thought, "Lucien, witches, churches, burning to death, could it be that I've really traveled through the world and still traveled through the dark ages of witch hunting in medieval Europe?" 　　Things always move in a bad direction, Murphy's Law coldly reminded Xia Feng, the boy's hair color, the dirty old linen clothes he was wearing, all were confirming this, as for the language the boy was speaking, Xia Feng's body instinctively could understand it, and also seemed to be able to use it, except that he, who was still a long way away from being a linguist, couldn't tell which language it was. 　　Seeing Xia Feng's soulfulness, the little boy with a few black and gray smudges on his face wasn't surprised, "Mom always refuses to believe me, and secretly cries in the middle of the night, crying until her eyes are swollen, and keeps chanting about poor little Evans, like big brother Lucien you're already buried inside the cemetery." 　　"Dad was so upset by the noise that he had no choice but to get that bad boy from Simon's house to send a letter to Sir Vine's manor early in the morning, so that brother could find a way to come back for once, he's already a trainee Knight Squire, and the doctors at the Good Hall wouldn't dare to insist on that outrageous, funny price in front of him." 　　The little boy's chin lifted slightly with a heartfelt pride as he spoke of his brother who had become a trainee knight squire. 　　"But, it's fine now, they lost, I was right, how could you possibly be alright, big brother Lucien!" 　　As he said that, he pulled Xia Feng's arm, "Go, big brother Lucien, quickly go to the church square to see the witch burning, the abominable witch that caused you to be captured by the church guards and interrogated for a night!" 　　The right time for a big change, is trying to be quiet and think about life of the summer wind, originally did not want to follow this little boy to go to the hilarity, and directly burned to death a living person, is really the self-proclaimed is still quite benign summer wind can not accept the thing, since they are powerless to stop it, then it is better not to witness good, but the little boy's last words, but let the summer wind a moment of shocked: "This witch and I have a connection? " 　　So Xia Feng's thoughts changed, collected his surprise, let the little boy pull, stumbled towards the church of Adejean. 　　Along the way, Xia Feng seized the opportunity to survey the people heading to the Adejean Church. 　　The weather was relatively warm, and the men were basically dressed in short, narrow-sleeved linen tops, pants of the same color and heel-less shoes, while the women wore boring, single-length skirts, often with a large pocket sewn into them, the common denominator being simplicity and shabbiness. 　　Most of the upper brunettes with brown pupils were mixed with blondes, reds, brunettes, turquoise eyes, red pupils, blue eyes, etc., and their features were deep and three-dimensional. 　　"Could it really be the Middle Ages?" Xia Feng looked at himself, the same short linen top, the same long pants, the same heel-less shoes. 　　Not long after coming out of the shabby, low-slung gathering area of poor houses, he saw a small but solemn and imposing church with a semi-circular vaulted ceiling towering over it, a huge white cross nailed to it, while the windows below were very narrow. 　　The square is already surrounded by a lot of people, the little boy pulling Xia Feng left and right, keep squeezing forward, attracted a lot of people look over angrily, but in the way of this is a church square, do not dare to beat up these two assholes. 　　Squeeze not long, summer wind in front of the eyes clear, the original is already squeezed to the front layer. 　　In the center of the square was a wooden cross, tied to a pale, beautiful black-robed woman in her twenties. 　　Surrounding the people, from time to time will bring with them the stone, wood, spit and so on toward the black-robed woman smashed, cursing sound chaotic mixed into a mess: 　　"Smash to death you damned witch." 　　"You witch is hiding in our Adejean district, you must be trying to kill us!" 　　"My poor little Tracy died a few months ago, and it must have been you, the wicked witch! Oooh, my poor little Tracy ......" 　　...... 　　Occasionally struck, the black-robed woman kept her thin, pale white lips tightly shut and did not utter a single grunt of pain, instead looking statuesquely at the people standing on the church steps. 　　At the head was a middle-aged man in a broad white robe trimmed with gold, wearing a white fedora and holding a round badge with a white cross painted on it, quietly watching without speaking, solemn and dignified, while behind him stood several white-robed men and women, clean and neat, rosy-cheeked and in stark contrast to the poverty and filth of the square. 　　After these white-robed men stood a row of guards in silver-gray locksmith armor, imposing. 　　The middle-aged man took out a pocket watch-like thing and looked at it, seeing that it was about time, so he took a step forward and raised the circular insignia high in one hand. 　　At once, the angry, hateful, and noisy people in the square were violently quiet, simultaneously and synchronized. 　　The only sound left in the entire square was the sound of the wind blowing through their clothes. 　　Xia Feng was very surprised, even in modern times, to achieve this level of obedience and conditioning, it would take at least a few months of training, and these ordinary people, who all looked like paupers, were able to do it? What power made them do it? 　　The middle-aged man held up his badge, his voice was not loud but spread throughout the entire square, "Poor sinner, you are mesmerized by the devil and delude yourself to gain evil power, from your body to your soul, you are filled with filth, only the holy light can purify you, this is both the Lord's punishment and the Lord's gift, it's the Lord's forgiveness for the lost sheep." 　　"Burn her, burn her!" The surrounding paupers shouted loudly, first sparsely, then neatly. 　　The scene of confusion and frenzy made Summer Wind shudder; if it was known that he had crossed over, the next one to go to the stake would be Lucien, whose soul had been appropriated by an evil demon. 　　"Before purifying you, the forgiving and merciful Lord allows me to ask you one more time: are you willing to repent? Sincere repentance will allow your soul to be completely purified and enter the Heavenly Kingdom where the Lord resides." The middle-aged man asked gently and compassionately. 　　The black-robed woman suddenly laughed madly, her voice shrill and piercing, "I pursue the truth of magic, not the God of truth, burn me, I will watch the destruction of this sinful heavenly kingdom in the flames, and watch this magnificent church collapse." 　　"Madman!" 　　"What evil!" 　　"The bishop's mercy was exchanged for a curse, these witches blinded by the devil are truly damned!" 　　"Burn her!" 　　The bishop didn't say anything, but the numerous paupers around him fell into a vocal frenzy. 　　For the first time in his life, Xia Feng was in a frenzied and unreasonable atmosphere, and while shocked, he couldn't help but think, "Medieval Europe, what a danger!" 　　"However, without a pile of wood, how are we going to burn her to death?" 　　Although he had pity and intolerance for that black-robed woman, Xia Feng didn't dare to make the slightest move, or else one person would be able to smash himself to death with a stone. 　　The bishop prayed a few times and his voice became louder, loud and without any semblance of emotion, "Sinner, then you will go to hell in the purification of the holy light." 　　The center cross insignia in his hand violently erupted with bright light, brilliant and dazzling, making all that Xia Feng's eyes could see was a white blur. 　　It was as if the bishop was holding up a small sun in his hand, solemn, majestic and holy, and everyone, including the little boy beside Xia Feng, lowered their heads in quiet prayer and praise. 　　The light gathered and shot toward the azure sky, and when it reached the height of the vault, the light folded back and fell, striking the pyre. 　　Red flames flared up, a man high, and surrounded the black-robed woman. 　　She laughed and cursed madly: 　　"I will watch the destruction of this sinful heavenly kingdom in the flames." 　　"I will watch this magnificent church collapse in the flames." 　　"I will watch in the flames as you sink forever!" 　　...... 　　The mournful voices were unceasing as the black-robed woman and the pyre burned to ashes together. 　　And Xia Feng was in a daze long before that emblem erupted in dazzling light: 　　"This is not medieval Europe ......" 　　"This is the world with true divine arts and magic!" 　　"My name is Lucien ......"